# Making a internal rails server reachable from the internet

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/making-a-internal-rails-server-reachable-from-the-internet/112660>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 21, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/making-a-internal-rails-server-reachable-from-the-internet/112660 "2007-08-21T22:21:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mhfs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mhfs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mhfs)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/making-a-internal-rails-server-reachable-from-the-internet/112660/1 "2007-08-21T22:21:51Z")

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Hello list,

I do my rails development on a XP machine. In order to test the  
deployment  
scheme as well as capistrano deployment, I’ve set up a local Virtual  
Machine  
(VMWare 6) with Ubuntu 7.04. I’ve set it up to use bridged networking so  
it  
would appear as a regular machine o my LAN subnet. Everything went fine,  
I’ve configured it with Apache, mongrel, set up capistrano and so on.

Inside my LAN, I can happilly access this machine by pointing to its IP  
addres in the browser of any other machine in the LAN (including the  
host XP  
machine).

What I would like to do is to make this Virtual ubuntu rails box  
available  
to the internet so that people outside my LAN could access it (through  
my  
external IP address). The machine with the internet connection is the  
host  
XP machine.

Does anyone have any idea on how could I do it ?

Thanks in advance,

Marcelo.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mhfs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mhfs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mhfs)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 12:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/making-a-internal-rails-server-reachable-from-the-internet/112660/2 "2007-08-22T12:49:40Z")

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Could I just have my mongrels on this VM server and use the XP’s Apache  
as  
the front-end with mod\_proxy\_balancer?

Thanks,

Marcelo.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mhfs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mhfs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mhfs)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/making-a-internal-rails-server-reachable-from-the-internet/112660/3 "2007-08-22T16:27:30Z")

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On Aug 21, 4:20 pm, “Marcelo de Moraes S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> What I would like to do is to make this Virtual ubuntu rails box available  
> to the internet so that people outside my LAN could access it (through my  
> external IP address). The machine with the internet connection is the host  
> XP machine.
> 
> Does anyone have any idea on how could I do it ?

Without really knowing what your network setup is, I’d say that what  
you’re going to have to do is set up some port-forwarding in your  
router or firewall so that people hitting your external IP on port 80  
(for example) are forwarded in to the internal machine you want them  
to hit.

I would just add that, obviously, doing this sort of thing carries  
numerous security implications, so tread carefully.